Did You Know...

When I was writing Invasion five years ago, I interviewed immigration officials who joked that the rule for border-crossing prosecutions in southern California and Arizona was “thirteen strikes and you’re out.” So this new story from the Associated Press headlined “Border crossings rarely prosecuted” in Texas is no surprise. Same old, same old:

Guidelines issued by U.S. attorneys in Texas showed that most illegal immigrants crossing into the state had to be arrested at least six times before federal authorities would prosecute them, according to an internal Justice Department memo.

The disclosure provides a rare view of how federal authorities attempt to curb illegal immigration. The memo was released this week in response to a congressional investigation of the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys…

…The memo was written in response to Justice Department inquiries about immigration prosecutions by the five U.S. attorney offices that cover the 2,000-mile border — San Diego, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston and Albuquerque, N.M.

Guidelines vary by office, but migrants with no criminal records who have not been deported by an immigration judge will almost certainly be turned back to Mexico “numerous times” before getting prosecuted, according to another Justice Department memo dated Nov. 22, 2005. Those “voluntary returns” are booked on administrative, not criminal, violations.

Parts of the other memo are blacked out, so it’s unclear whether the document refers to U.S. attorneys in Houston or San Antonio.

The memo says one Texas district prosecutes migrants if the Border Patrol catches them at least six to eight times. The other district prosecutes after someone is caught at least seven times.

In late 2005, the government created a 200-mile zone near Del Rio, Texas, in which every adult arrested for illegal immigration would be prosecuted and jailed before being deported.

The San Diego office, which covers an area stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Arizona state line, does not prosecute “purely economic migrants” as a general rule, according to the memo.

The Arizona district, the nation’s busiest corridor for illegal crossings, “almost certainly” declines to prosecute on a first or second offense, the memo says. The New Mexico district makes decisions based on criminal records in the U.S.

There are many exceptions to the rule, including violators with criminal records.

Representatives of all five U.S. attorney offices declined to comment.

Millions of undocumented immigrants could get legal permission to stay in the U.S. by paying fines and symbolically re-entering the country, under an immigration reform bill introduced in the House Thursday.

Well, at least they’re being honest about it. After “symbolically” re-entering, they’d be put on a non-symbolic “path to citizenship”.

The bill also would allow up to 400,000 foreign workers to come to the U.S. legally every year.

Presumably that’s refering to the “guest” worker program, which in an earlier bill was capped at 200,000. And, for those of you who think Jeff Flake isn’t a liar, consider this quote from Flake:

“This bill will end illegal immigration”

It’ll do that in about the same way as the 1986 amnesty did. Any “tough” provisions would eventually be ignored or watered down. The forces that would do that would include the racial power groups, industry groups, corrupt banks, foreign governments, and such that have been pushing “reform”. They currently support illegal immigration, and this bill will give them even more political power from which to continue their support for illegal immigration. Flake is simply a liar.

It’s going to take a lot more than the McCain/Kennedy lover’s spat to slay the amnesty beast.